


anywhere i would've followed you

by haarucchii



Series: where we go together (and where we separate) [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 21:33:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12067374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haarucchii/pseuds/haarucchii
Summary: There’s an unknown message in his inbox when Shiro realizes, and he opens it.>> Be safe.





	anywhere i would've followed you

**Author's Note:**

> a small sequel upon a months consideration

**i. with all your heart**

 

Shiro was never the type to use his phone consistently. It bothered Matt all the time, and usually other people who tried to keep in constant contact with Shiro. Ironically, the most effective way to keep in touch was through email.

 

He keeps in touch with his family through text messages, he talks to his younger nephews and keeps in touch with his mom. Being halfway across the world can do something like that, but it makes his day the moment his nephew and niece clamour up to the camera during their rare video calls and vibrate in excitement about how they love space, how they’ll want to be like their famous Uncle Takashi, who’s going to Pluto’s moon in a little less than a year.

 

All Shiro does is laugh, but he thinks about how far he’ll be from his family, how he wouldn’t be able to call them,  how Matt and Sam Holt will be his only compatriots for months on end. But he holds his cell phone in his hand, rereads his messages from his family members and it makes him feel safe.

 

Eight months later, he hops on the ship with his small cellphone in his suit, feels the vibration of a message in his pocket and tells himself—

 

_I’ll open it later._

  
  
  
  
  
  


**ii. upon realization**

 

The Galra, surprisingly, don’t take his phone away. He sees cracks on his screen and it only lasts moments in his grasp as the battery dies out.

 

But he’s on his third gladiator fight when the device is thrown at him, and Shiro cracks open his phone and rereads messages from his mom, from his dad, from his sister and brother and some from his nieces and nephews. He reads messages that he ignored from that one pretty girl in Calculus, and reads the memes that Matt sent him months before the flight to Kerberos was even in the works.

 

There’s an unknown message in his inbox when Shiro realizes, and he opens it.

 

_ >> Be safe. _

 

It’s ominous in it’s own right, but all he feels is warmth and strength from the message. The gates of his cell opens, and the guards stand there expectantly. Shiro looks at the message, tightens his grip, then throws the device at the wall before it could be used against him.

 

He has fights to win.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**iii. love not yet reclaimed**

 

Lance is a force to be reckoned with, and Shiro knows first hand about his abilities as a fighter.

 

Though, Shiro wishes that the younger man would realize it himself. He tries to help Lance in ways that would be effective, but it’s harder to deal with Lance and Hunk (who always seem to stay side by side) than it would to deal with the resident Edgy Kids, Pidge and Keith.

 

Keith, for the first few months of forming Voltron and becoming a universal defender, did not let Shiro out of his sight asides from the times he trained by himself. But in the beginning, Keith didn’t want to do much beyond forming Voltron with the rest of the team. But as more time passed on, they all got closer as friends and a family.

 

But Shiro sees Lance in his peripheral and sees how the younger man seemed to be one step behind all of them, yet two steps ahead at the same time. Shiro hears Lance’s boisterous laugh, obnoxious flirting methods, and the way he rests his arms beside his body in open body language the moment they meet new possible allies.

 

He sees the way Lance breaks the ice, with eyes glimmering and mouth ready to speak words that effortlessly start conversations.

 

Shiro admires the younger man, for how well he took being part of Voltron and how quickly he accepted his new role. Lance seems to find ways to get Shiro to loosen up, but also stress out at the same time.

 

Shiro wonders if Lance even knows the effect he has on him.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**iv. hold me close and don’t let me go**

 

Shiro accepts the fact that he’s in love with Lance. He’s in love with soft blue eyes that are hardened at the sight of war and soft lips pursed in the sight of enemies and difficult missions.

 

He accepts the way Lance looks at him with adoration in his eyes and blind leadership. But he wants more, he wants Lance to look at him with the shine in his eyes like how he talks to Hunk about new recipes and how he teases Keith about his ineptitude.

 

He wants to say to Lance, _I love you_ , but he’s so scared of the ways it could go awry. He loves Lance. He wants to keep the paladin beside him, for he is one of the reasons he can keep on fighting. But he sees the way Lance looks at his phone and types words while pursing his lips at Shiro, eyes narrowed and curled away from the leader.

 

He wonders if Lance really hates him that much.

 

He approaches the young man with intent, before the final battle begins. The words are soft on his lips and he thinks about holding Lance’s thin body in his arms before they leave. He thinks about pressing chapped lips against soft ones, and blue eyes shining with flushed cheeks and bronze skin shining like a prize hard earned.

 

The words are on the tip of his tongue moments before the countdown starts.

 

_3…_

 

                     Shiro reaches his arm out.

 

_2…_

 

_“Lance-”_

 

_1…_

 

_“What is it?”_

 

_0._

 

“Be safe out there, sharpshooter.” He says, and he heads to his lion.

 

He’ll tell him when he returns.

 


End file.
